Search

The farm is clearly the most exciting part of the Milwaukee Brewers organization. While the major league team is at Miller Park, being dominated by the Cubs and overrun with Cubs’ fans, let’s have happier thoughts. SIGNIFICANTLY happier thoughts.

The minor league regular season ended Monday, Sept. 5 for all but the Helena Brewers. Let’s take a look at the exciting names of the future and the players putting up big numbers in the stat columns. Today, we’re looking at offense. The wallbangers, base stealers, run scorers of the Brewers farm system. Hopefully, the players that are coming to save Milwaukee from some really, really crappy baseball.

Home Runs:

Isan Diaz, 20 (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)

Brett Phillips, 16 (Biloxi Shuckers)

Ronnie Gideon, 16 (Helena Brewers)

Jake Gatewood, 14 (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)

Nick Ramirez, 14 (Biloxi Shuckers)

Runs Batted In:

Diaz, 75

Garrett Cooper, 69 (Biloxi Shuckers, Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Gatewood, 64

Phillips, 62

Andy Wilkins, 56 (Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Runs:

Kyle Wren, 75 (Biloxi Shuckers, Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Diaz, 71

Gatewood, 70

Nathan Orf, 68 (Biloxi Shuckers, Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Michael Reed, 68 (Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Batting Average (Minimum of 200 ABs):

Manny Pina, .329 (Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Lucas Erceg, .327 (Helena Brewers, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)

Weston Wilson, .326 (Helena Brewers)

Wren: .322

Gideon, .315

OPS (Minimum of 200 ABs):

Gideon, .994

Wilson, .913

Erceg, .895

Josmil Pinto, .879 (Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Pina, .877

Stolen Bases:

Johnny Davis, 32 (Brevard County Manatees, Biloxi Shuckers)

Wren, 29

Eric Young Jr., 23 (Colorado Springs Sky Sox)

Max McDowell, 21 (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)

Luis Aviles, 21 (Wisconsin Timber Rattlers)

MVP: Isan Diaz

Diaz has hit his way into a lot of fans hearts. The young middle infielder came over this year in the Jean Segura trade and didn’t excite too many in the first two months, then he took off. Diaz placed in three of the categories listed above and was 6th on the OPS rankings. Not only did he lead those categories, but he did most of it in June, July, and August, hitting 17 homers, 54 of his RBIs, and scoring 50 of his runs. If Diaz can get off to this hot of a start in 2017, he’ll quickly move his way to the top of the Brewers’ prospect rankings.

Most Improved (with at least one season with the Brewers): Jake Gatewood

Gatewood’s performance has been overall disappointing to start off his major league career, but most people should have known that would happen. In his second stint at Wisconsin, Gatewood increased his OPS nearly 70 points. There’s no doubt he needs a lot more polish — particularly in the patience department, he walked just 18 times — but it’s nice to see his power and ability to drive in runs come to fruition. Hopefully, Gatewood will continue increase his performance every year.

Most Disappointing: Jacob Nottingham

What we heard about Nottingham when the Brewers traded for him made it sound like he would dominate this list. Instead, he’s not listed once. The young catcher hit 11 homers at Biloxi but only managed a .234 average. Nottingham has gaudy expectations considering his reputation, hopefully he can straighten things out the next time around.

Other notes:

A lot of people, including myself, weren’t too excited with the Brewers getting Ryan Cordell to finish off the Lucroy/Jeffress trade. Then I looked at the list and Cordell’s stats. Cordell would have finished 2nd in homers and RBI, 4th in runs, and in the top ten in OPS. Not to mention that he missed the last month of the season. It will be exciting to see how a full season goes for Cordell, especially at AAA.

Finally, Gideon might have been the most impressive hitting 16 homers in 56 games. The next lowest amount of games played of the 5 home run leaders was Nick Ramirez at 111. A little disclaimer on Gideon, he’s 21 years old and playing rookie ball — and has a few more games to play. He’s above the league average for age, but just barely. Despite his age and league, it’s always impressive to hit that many home runs in that amount of time.

I was fortunate enough to see Diaz and Gatewood 3 times this season (my wife is not a baseball fan) or it would have been more–Anyway not sure I like Diaz as a power hitter which seems to be his goal–When I saw him it was early in the season and he made more long fly outs to right field –BUT he is a talent no doubt –and plays the field well–Gatewood too –both have bright futures